US, UN lambasted for silence over killing in Indian occupied Kashmir

WASHINGTON, July 14 (APP): A leading US-based Kashmiri organization on Wednesday lambasted the United Nations and the Obama administration for ignoring the killings of innocent people in the Indian occupied Kashmir and said the world powers have moral obligations to play their role in supporting the right of self-determination.

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of the World Kashmir Awareness condemned the India’s brutal tactics to suppress the voice of young Kashmiri youth after the “cold blooded” murder of Burhan Wani, a freedom fighter in the Indian-held
Kashmir.

Around 35 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in clashes in the past three days triggered by the killing of the Kashmiri freedom fighter by the Indian police last week.

“The United Nations has walked away from the slaughter in Kashmir and washed its hands of it,” Dr. Fai said in a statement, adding that the US State Department has also failed to respond to the wave of violence and killing of innocent people.

US media reports have highlighted the intensity of protests and the brutal Indian response. A report published in the Washington Post, quoting an Indian security official, said that they did not expect such a response to the killing of the Kashmiri freedom fighter who had a large following among the fellow Kashmiri youth.

“The killing of Burhan Wani, who had never shot anyone himself, but who had become an icon of the youth-driven demand for self-determination through his brave voice, was possibly the very worst thing India could have done if it had wanted peace with Kashmir,” Dr. Fai stated. He said, after Wani’s death the slogan “We want Aazadi and nothing else but Aazadi” has now become viral on social media.

The Kashmiri leader said that the US, the sole superpower in the world, must bear the responsibility for setting the moral tone through disciplined and rightful leadership, but instead it sits back and does nothing.

“Such a behavior poorly disguises the financial incentives that have opened India up to USD $500 billion in American investment during the coming five years.

Would the U.S. not sacrifice even one dollar for a Kashmiri life, people are asking?”.

Dr. Fai said that by such willful choice to remain silent, the U.S. is in fact declaring that Kashmiris have no fundamental rights and do not deserve them.

While the protests and demand for self-determination is ongoing in the Indian held valley, Dr. Fai said that the situation in 2016 is totally different from the past.

“It is a youth driven mass movement with social media savvy. They are educated and enthusiastic to achieve their birthright—the right to self-determination.”

He said India is closing its eyes to the fact by not realizing the extent of desire for self-determination and continues to pretend to the world that it does not exist. “However long India refuses to acknowledge it, the decades-old movement in Kashmir will not simply die out.”

The Kashmiri leader said that Kashmir was known as the paradise, but it has been turned into hell by the occupation forces. And the irony is that these forces are immune from any prosecution under special draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he added.

“And perhaps it’s time that President Obama and the United States wake up and smell the teargas,” he said.